City councillor questioning no Ottawa police COVID-19 vaccine mandate, cost of testing
Posted Oct 26, 2021 09:03:02 PM.
The Ottawa Police Service's (OPS) COVID-19 vaccination policy is raising some questions from one city councillor.
The policy, which came into effect on Friday, October 22, requires unvaccinated members to provide a negative PCR or rapid antigen test every 72 hours.
Cyrville-Beacon Hill Ward City Councillor Tim Tierney has received numerous e-mails from residents asking why the service isn't mandating the vaccines, and who will be covering the costs for testing unvaccinated staff.
In response, the councillor put those exact questions forward to Ottawa Police Services Board (OPSB) Chair Diane Deans.
“I think we want to know because, I'm looking around — Toronto police, OPP, they need have to be fully vaccinated or they get chopped off the pay,” Tierney told CityNews Ottawa's The Sam Laprade Show on Tuesday, October 26. “I just want to know why we have a system that's not in lockstep with other municipalities in Ontario.”
Tierney also feels clarification is needed on who is paying for testing, to determine if that would fall onto the individual OPS members or onto the OPS itself. He adds, other members of council have heard similar concerns from their constituents, and feels these questions will continue to be raised until there are answers surrounding the policy.
The councillor says while numerous service members flocked to get immunized against COVID-19 when vaccines first became available, OPS now needs to close it out on the other side.
“I hear Peter Sloly, our [police] chief, saying over 85 per cent are fully vaccinated, well let's close the gap on the final 15 per cent.” Tierney said.
You can listen to the full interview with Tierney below:
